Rep. Marcia Fudge to President Obama: ‘No more Ms. nice guy’

Rep. Marcia Fudge didn’t sugarcoat her feelings about the fact that President Barack Obama has not yet chosen any African-Americans to fill open high-level positions in his second term.

Fudge is also the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). In a stern letter to President Obama, Rep. Fudge wrote earlier this month:

“The people you have chosen to appoint in this new term have hardly been reflective of this country’s diversity. Their ire is compounded by the over-whelming support you’ve received from the African-American community.”

The letter’s tone and tenor typifies the blunt, hard-charging style of Fudge, an Ohio Democrat, and signals a shift in how the 43-member caucus of African-American Senate and House of Representatives members will approach the nation’s first African-American president in his final years in office.

Fudge hopes to give the CBC a “bigger voice” beyond Congress in order to press an agenda that includes improving economic conditions for African-Americans, preserving and improving voting rights laws, and seeking a balanced change in the country’s immigration laws.

Over the last four years, many CBC members held their tongues, quietly grumbled, or delicately expressed frustration about a seeming inability to get their message to Obama.

The organization contends that the president was in-attentive to a number of issues impacting African-Americans, especially an unemployment rate nearly twice the nation’s overall jobless rate.

Fudge said in an interview that she hasn’t received a direct reply from Obama to the letter. She also expressed disappointment that the White House hasn’t considered “a number of qualified candidates” recommended by the CBC for administration jobs over the last four years.